


Like A Hummingbird In Silence

by butimbroken



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-22
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-08 16:19:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3215573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butimbroken/pseuds/butimbroken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy/Angel. AU. A car accident brings a divorced couple back into one another's lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

As he easily climbed out of the car, Angel buttoned his suit back up and tried to straighten himself up a little. It wasn't so much of being worried about making himself look more presentable, but more of him trying to do a mundane task to try and settle his nerves a little before he would head into the large, looming hospital. His brown eyes squinted some against the sunlight as he glanced around the large parking lot before he closed them, took a deep breath, and shook his hands a few good times at his sides before closing the door to his vehicle and began to make his way toward the closest entrance he could spot.

He had been in a meeting when his secretary had poked her head in the room, trying to get his attention. He'd raised an eyebrow at her but casually made his way across the room to where she was. Harmony had given him an uneasy look then whispered about the hospital being on the other line. Angel had told her to tell them to call back later, not paying much attention as he was more focused on business and just getting her back out of the room. "They, um, said it was about your wife?" came out as a question next and he had to force himself not to wince.

'I don't have a wife. Not anymore,' were the words his mind automatically brought up but he kept them otherwise quiet and his emotions under wraps as he stood near the doorway. Angel then told the young blonde once more that she should tell them he would return their phone call and deal with whatever the problem was at a later time, giving no more than that as he sent Harmony back on her way.

It was no more than a minute or two later when the door re-opened and Harmony shot him an anxious, apologetic glance. "Sorry, bossy. It's really important."

This time Angel gave a tight smile to everyone else in the room and apologized for the intrusion before walking back to the blonde. He kept a calm look on his face but his eyes showed his annoyance with girl when he knew she was the only one who could see them.

"Before you blow a gasket at me," she was quick to jump in and say, her voice no more than a whisper, "I did what you asked and tried to just take a message but they are insisting on speaking to you. They said it was an emergency, that your wife has been in a real bad accident and they need to speak with you."

His stomach wanted to give out and his heart certainly skipped a beat or two but he forced himself to keep his composer as he turned to address the room once more. He soon excused himself from the room and told Harmony to send the call to his private line in his office-where he then headed toward. He used the trip there to go back and forth between fretting like a mad man and telling himself to calm down.

When Harmony had first explained about the hospital, and even later when she mentioned it being related to Buffy he hadn't thought much of it. He'd gotten a call before from another hospital after their split which was about nothing more than dealing with the payments so he figured it was probably something similar. At that time he figured that she had probably just not gotten around to removing herself from anything related to him on such things given it had still been new and also the fact that Buffy would avoid going to a hospital at all costs if she could help it so it probably hadn't crossed her mind because of that.

Still, he hadn't thought much of it at first. But now with the way Harmony had worded everything he was starting to have every bad thought a person could possibly have pass through his mind at a mile a minute.

He'd forced himself to take a drink, sit down at his desk and take a deep breath once he reached his office. He spoke in a clear voice after picking up the phone receiver to get to the bottom of whatever was going on. And somehow he had managed to keep that same tone throughout the entire conversation as he answered their questions as well as asked his own, and otherwise sat patiently as they would speak to him. They did not want to go into much detail over the phone-nor did he-but he got the gist of the situation from the phone call.

It wasn't until he hung up that he let his true emotions show, his body physically shaking and his breathing turning ragged.

He'd stayed locked in his office until he re-gained control of his emotions then began to get his affairs in order so he could get out to the hospital as soon as possible. Angel had gotten rather lucky on that end of things. He'd managed to get there just in time for a flight out and got all of his other arrangements made for a rental car, hotel and such worked out with some help from Harmony back at the office.

And now he was here.

Angel easily found his way to the front desk and waited behind two others before he got to the front of the line to ask for directions as to where he needed to go from here. The girl behind the desk tried flirting with him but he was in no mood for that. He did force a fake smile or two her way and managed to thank her for her help before continuing on his way.

"Fuck me," was said under his breath not too long after, having gotten turned around for the second time. His mind was being fuzzy and he was having a hard time concentrating on anything and it was getting quite annoying. Thankfully, it was another five minutes or so before he found where he needed to be.

Angel began to be briefed and updated on the situation with Buffy. He was sat down as he began to hear the story of what had happened first-from what they could gather from the scene and other eye-witness accounts. He clenched his hands together as they described the car crash in which his ex-wife had been involved in, and how lucky she was to have survived such an ordeal. There'd been a massive pile up and she'd gotten some hell thrown her way in the middle of it. Angel listened as they then began to describe what injuries she'd come in with and the steps for treatment which they'd begun. He was walked through some of the possibilities for one injury or another, and they went over the surgery they'd done on her while he was still on his way here. The doctor explained that she was still out from the surgery and there would be a long road ahead of her on some things, but gave a positive outlook which made Angel feel a little relieved.

Angel decided he would keep some information to himself for the time being, not mentioning to the staff that he and Buffy were no longer married, they weren't on speaking terms, and the only reason he was still listed as her emergency contact was more than likely due to not having gotten around to updating such information just yet. He'd thought at first he would tell them once he found out her condition and if she were okay or not, but that faultered away upon his arrival it seemed.

OoOoO

Buffy was having one hell of a day. And that was quite the understatement.

First, she had woken up to a searing pain in her head, although the process of actually waking up was not an easy one. It'd been almost like a buzz at first, but then continued to grow and grow. Her brain and her body didn't seem to want to work on the same team so it'd taken her what felt like forever to actually get her eyes to pry open. Along the way she found it wasn't just a pain in her head but her entire body seemed to just ache.

When her eyes finally did open, she had to blink several times to make the images before her less fuzzy. They made no sense however. Another month of Sunday's seemed to pass before she pulled herself up a little to look around. Her mind registered the images but it took some fishing around her brain for the actual words to form together. That she was in a hospital. Buffy looked around a little the best she could from her position, at the room and then down at herself. She gasped a little at the off-colored skin, the scrapes, bruises and cuts that greeted her. The IV's, bandages and hook ups to machines.

For the life of her, Buffy couldn't recall any reason as to why she would be here or in such a condition.

Deciding to get help minutes later, she fumbled around until she found a call button and waited for someone to arrive.

The nurse who entered the room looked nearly as shocked as she felt. "Mrs. O'Connor," the woman greeted happily. "You're finally awake."

The nurse came over as Buffy blinked and tried to swallow and soon felt the nurse's hands on her checking her stats before raising her bed a little. "A-awake?" Buffy finally managed to get out once sitting up a little better. Her throat felt awfully itchy and dry.

Picking up on that, the woman walked over to bring her a drink of water. Buffy tried to thank her but her head was all muddled so she just attempted a nod before taking her first sip.

And then things really began to get weird.

Buffy learned of the car accident in which she was involved in and what had led her here. She had listened utterly horrified as they described the wreck as well as her injuries and what treatments they had begun as well as planned for her. She didn't remember a lick of it, for this she was actually thankful for though. Hell, she didn't even remember ever having learned to drive. She'd been terrified all through high school.

Her eyes had nearly popped out of her head at the news that she'd been in a coma for over two weeks.

This was hardly the most disconcerting part of the conversation however. No, that came from the realization that it wasn't just the accident that she couldn't remember. There were actually several years of her life that were now missing. Tears stung her eyes as she frantically tried to recall anything... but there was just nothing. The last memories on her mind were of seven years ago and nothing further than that. She was a nineteen year old collage student for all she could remember, not a twenty-five year old who-knew-what!

Everyone tried to be helpful to the scared young woman but it didn't exactly do much as far as she was concerned. The only upside was the hope it would be temporary, as she was told it usual was with her type of injury. It was still frightening despite this, being unable to remember anything at all in the past six years, unsure of why she was even here-so far from the last home she did remember, anything.

"We will run some tests on you soon to get a better understanding of where we are," she barely heard as her brain kept going in and out of focus of her surroundings with all the new information laid in her lap. "Mrs. O'Connor..."

"Wh-Why do you keep calling me th-that?" she interrupted. That thought had crossed her mind a time or two but she finally got her mouth for spit the words out.

And that was about the time she learned Elizabeth Summers was now Elizabeth O'Connor.

She was given several of her personal effects, many including the strange new surname. She picked up her license once handed the small card and saw the black lettering with the name staring back at her.

Buffy was staring at the beautiful ring set she'd also been given some time later, after she'd been left alone to have some time to herself, when a nurse finally came to check in. This young woman was much more chatty than the rest and began to compliment her on the ring which then led to a short discussion of the man who must have given it to her. Buffy couldn't remember a thing about him for the life of her but the nurse was happy to fill her in on what she knew. There was the information of how he was listed as the person to contact should anything happen and how he'd rushed out here, there was his name-Angelus O'Connor, and the nurse was not in the least bit shy about informing the confused girl that this husband of hers sure was a honey and she would not be disappointed with him as far as looks went anyhow.

She learned that this Angelus O'Connor person had been here ever since that call had been made, that he spent most of his days there with her at the hospital, and that he had been contacted about her having come out of the coma so she should probably be expecting him to make an appearance at any time.

OoOoO

Buffy was taken out of her room for a couple of hours to run some scans and do some testing but whenever she was in her room she found herself holding her breath every single time the door opened. Her mind was so muddled as it were but the thought of having a husband she couldn't remember going to show up at any time was a little more than she could bear.

She was anxious about everything really. Everything and everyone she couldn't remember and even some that she could bring to mind, earlier memories seemed to clear for the most part, but everything else was just a big blank space as if it never happened for the majority.

It all hurt her head to think about. The past she could remember, the one she couldn't, the accident, her life... the past, the present, the unsure future... Not wanting to deal with reality anymore, Buffy decided to rest her head down on the pillow and escape it all for awhile.

It didn't feel like she slept for long but a glance at the windows told her it must have been a few hours as the sun was going down. Buffy groaned as she tried to move then stilled when she heard a voice from behind her. "Are you alright?" the voice had asked. A soft, masculine voice at that.

Buffy shifted with another groan. "Yeah, I'm..." she trailed off as she finally got herself to a position where she could find the source of the other voice in the room. Her throat was back to feeling dry, though this time for a much better looking reason. Sitting in one of the chairs along one of the walls was the stranger who could have nearly knocked the breath right out of her. The thought that he was probably the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life-or would ever see in her life-came just as quickly as she practically drooled right there on the hospital bed.

"Elizabeth?"

Both this stranger and her turned their head to the door. "Buffy," both of them corrected. Buffy blinked, her head turning slowly back to the man a few feet away and tried to place him.

"Right, sorry. Buffy," the woman said with a shake of her head. She stepped closer into the room and turned on a light, making Buffy wince. "Buffy," she then said slowly, "Do you recognize this man?" the nurse asked, pointing toward the man in the blue chair.

Buffy was silent at first, staring at him, then she shook her head. "N-no. Sh-should I?"

"That's okay dear," the woman said, reaching her hand out to pat Buffy's. "Like we've said, it'll take time," she said to both Buffy and the other man. She then looked directly at Buffy and said, "Buffy, this is Angelus O'Connor. He's your husband."

Buffy was sure she must have looked pretty comical in that moment and the next several to follow. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was probably wide open as well as she stared in disbelief. She hardly even heard anything else the nurse said, nor her leaving the room, leaving her alone with her husband.

Buffy swallowed, forcing herself to blink a few good times. The man she was saying her husband looked at her oddly, some part of him trying to seek out if she recognized him she knew but other than that she couldn't seem to read him. His brown eyes were dark and haunting, like they could see into her soul. He had a strong facial structure... beautiful cheek bones, sculpted to jaw line that was covered in light stubble. And on top of that gorgeous head of his was some luscious locks of dark brown hair, spiked in a way it looked both messy and professional. He had a nice tan from what little of his actual skin she could see and he wore the light gray sweatshirt and jeans like they were made just for him. His arms and legs looked long, hard and strong. "Y-you're my hu-husband?" Buffy finally spoke.

Angelus sighed, templed his fingers against one another and looked back at the door out to the hallway. "Ex-husband actually," he answered.

Buffy blinked again. "E-ex-husband?"

He nodded, looking back at her now. "Yes," he said, his voice remaining soft and his tone even. "We divorced last year."

"O-oh," she replied. Not only had she found out today that she'd been married but now also that she'd gotten divorced. One of her hands came up to her forehead and rubbed the building headache there. "Sorry, this is all just very confusing for me."

He nodded, leaning back some in the chair. "I would image so," he stated simply.

"A-are we on g-good terms wi-with one another?" she asked after a few moments passed.

His face gave a tight smile. "No. I wouldn't say that." Then he explained, "I was still listed as your husband and emergency contact, that's why they called me. We haven't spoken to one another in about five months."

"O-oh," was repeated. "Th-they fai-failed to mention the divorced part when y-you were brought up."

Another tight smile. "I may have forgotten to tell them," he told her. At her raised eyebrow he sighed. "I didn't think they would be so forth coming with updating me on how you were doing if I corrected them on that little detail. I was worried about you."

Buffy felt awkward at the last statement and looked down at her own banged-up hands.

"I am sure you are on information overload with everything you've been through and it is all quite a bit to take in," he told her, "I'd like to help in any way that I can, Buffy. I am sure you have a thousand questions and maybe some of them I can provide some insight to. I can also get in touch with some of your old friends-Willow and Xander-if you'd like. She and some of the others were here over the weekend to see you. I am sure they'd be happy to hear you're finally awake."

"T-That would be nice. Thank you."

"It's no bother," he replied. Another pause passed before he asked, "What are some of the last things you do remember?"

Buffy sighed, letting her head fall back a bit against the pillow behind her and began to answer him on the last things her mind could bring up.

His head nodded once more. "That sounds like a little less than a year before you and I met if memory serves me correctly," he told her.

OoOoO

The past two weeks had been an absolute hell as far as Angel had been concerned. He would have easily preferred her green eyes to have opened in a blaze after the surgery, for her to have started cursing him out as he'd expected, as she had been doing every time she saw him for over a year. Even if it nearly ripped him to shreds each and every time, he was used to it. Having her not wake up and just lie there day after day was more than his heart could stand. The silence was deafening, the wonderings of she would ever wake up weighing him down.

He'd spent more time in the past two weeks berating himself as well as her for the wrongs that had destroyed their marriage than he had any other time before. If they'd not tossed it all away, this wouldn't have happened.

He'd nearly had a heart attack when the call came in informing him that she'd finally awoken. As happy as he was at this news, he also felt his heart give way a little all the same because he knew what was in store for him next. And after the two weeks of hell... he wasn't sure if he could handle it.

It wasn't until he actually arrived at the hospital that he was told about her memory loss. He'd nearly laughed at the idea. Fate sure could be one cruel thing it seemed. Right when you think you're getting close to hitting bottom, the dark pit you were seeing gives way to a whole new floor below the previous.

His eyes had searched hers for any signs that she knew who he was when she'd re-awoken and noticed his presence... but there were none. There was no anger or hurt in her eyes when she looked at him, no hateful words being flung his way, no hint of her knowing anything of their life together. He was a virtual stranger as far as she was concerned.

A flood of relief caught him by surprise by this. He could be thankful she was alright and not go to war with her in the same breath.

The last time she'd been herself and the two of them were in each other's presence Buffy had clipped him on the side of the head with a toaster she'd picked up and threw at him. Having no idea who he was was rather a pleasant change on his end of things.


	2. Chapter Two

Angel sighed when Buffy asked him how they met, that scared stutter still present as she spoke. He was sure she had an endless string of questions not only about him but everything and didn't know where to start with asking but took the set up he had put out there without really meaning to. He asked her if she would rather him go ahead and call Willow or someone but her sad eyes as she asked him "Please" struck right to the core. "I fe-feel like I need to know something-anything-about myself and those lost years."

Angel moved his body slightly in the uncomfortable chair before clearing his throat. "I was living in New York working at one of the sales offices for Wolfram And Hart when I was offered a promotion with the company. The new position required a move to LA since it was at their corporate office."

"W-Wolfram and Hart?" Buffy asked, looking like she was trying to place the name. "T-the hotel chain?"

Angel nodded. "Global marketing operations," he explained. "I was still getting settled in when I got roped into going with a few of my associates to speak to some business students at local collages. One of those was UC Sunnydale." Angel paused, looking aimlessly around the room as she stared at him, listening. "Your friend Anya was in the class we came to speak to while you just happened to be in the classroom. You had popped in to see her in between two of your own classes but wound up staying for the entire lecture." He could see Buffy blush in a light pink out of the corner of his eye, reminding him a lot of the very day he was describing to her. "While Miss Jenkins did get a lot of attention drawn to herself with her bold attitude and strange questions-as well as bringing the focus to those around her, you had caught my attention all on your own within the first few minutes," he admitted. "I wound up making a near fool of myself when it came my turn to have the floor, using that to my advantage to flirt uncontrollably with you. You'd been embarrassed at first, no question about that, but soon you were matching me tit-for-tat every step along the way. When the time was finally up you got all shy on me again and made a mad dash toward the door."

"Oh, God," he heard her groan. It almost made him smile.

"It was all in good fun," he said. "And I was going to leave it there. You walked out the door and I started gathering up my things preparing to head back to LA. But as I started walking through those halls again I just couldn't seem to shake you off my mind. I didn't have a name for you as I'd spent the whole time referring to you as "The Pretty Blonde" and the like, you calling me "The Handsome Suit" and other similar nicknames-nor anything to go off of but after being handed about five different flyers to a frat party that would be taking place later that evening I decided to give it a shot. I was there maybe a total of five to eight minutes when luck would be on my side as I spotted you come in. I simply watched you for another ten or fifteen minutes before finally making my way over to you. God bless you, you wasted no time in calling me out on it as the first words to come out of your mouth. You had me hook, line and sinker right then and there. After introducing me to your friends that had come with you to the party you joined me when I asked if you wanted to get out of there. We spent the entire night walking around Sunnydale just talking. About everything. Subjects ranged from our life stories, hobbies to music and current events. The sun was thinking about waking up by the time we finally got you back to your dorm room. I headed back to LA but from that point on I would come back to Sunnydale to see you absolutely any chance that I got."

"We f-fell in love?" Buffy's voice asked, bringing him back to the present as he got swept up in the memories of the past. Her voice sounded small and unsure.

Angel shifted again in the chair. "We did," he confirmed. "Very quickly and very passionately," he added, still keeping his voice in the same neutral tone he'd had since the beginning. "I proposed to you just over two months from when we first met. And we got married another three and a half months after that."

Buffy's green eyes went as wide as they possibly could, her mouth hanging open for a moment. He knew why. Buffy had taken her parent's divorce very hard and had laid out a well thought out plan for if she were to ever say those magical "I do's" with anyone. While there were no fool-proof way to make sure two people would stay together forever, she'd wanted to make sure down to the last drop that she would be making the right choice. And here he came along and she'd thrown out every step she'd been set on and took the leap right along with him.

Not that she remembered that part, or why it'd came to be.

"Th-that s-seems rather... quick?"

"We were in love. Stupidly, head over heels, over the moon in love with one another. We easily decided we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together and agreed upon not wanting to waste the time to get to starting on making that happen. You'd had your reservations about marriage and I sure the hell never intended on settling down once before you came along, but all of that went right out the window. And we made it happen. We planned-and later had-a beautiful wedding. Neither one of us had ever looked happier in our lives, and you'd never looked more beautiful than you did that day because of it," he told her, his voice softening just the slightest. "It was decently sized... the setting was bigger than the guests, but it was perfect. You had your friends from school and such, friends of the family, old and current teachers and some scattered distant relatives. I had a bit more of my family fly in, then co-workers and friends. There was the church, the cake, the decorations, the dancing... the whole shebang."

"Did my father come?" she asked after a moment. "Wa-was he the one to walk me down the isle?"

Angel sighed, shaking his head. "Hank came. He stood in the back and left before the reception. Rupert Giles was the one who walked you down."

Buffy smiled at this. "It sounds like it was beautiful."

Angel cleared his throat. "It was. It was everything we hoped it'd be. And it was the perfect start to our marriage," he told her. "We stayed in Sunnydale so you could continue your classes, moving into your old home that'd pretty much been sitting there empty since after your mother had passed and you'd been going to school. I continued to work for Wolfram and Hart... which wasn't always easy but they worked with me on getting my hours switched so scheduling got better for all ends involved. And we just went about our lives, loving every day and one another I guess they say."

"Did... do we have any... um... children?"

"No," he answered. "That had been something we didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on at first, I was very hesitant at the idea of having children... but I eventually came around. And we both decided that someday we would like to grow our family out more." Angel felt his thumb slide over to touch the wedding ring that remained on his hand, rubbing it gently as an old habit. "Sadly, that someday never came to be for us."

Buffy's eyes slowly lifted to meet his and he swallowed hard at the sight, losing a small piece of the battle to keep all of his emotions under wraps. She looked sad, confused, and very thoughtful in that moment. "I-it sounds like w-we were m-madly in love and perfectly happy," she said, his tone making him swallow another lump that'd formed in his throat. "Wh-what happened?"

OoOoO

Angel had never been happier for an interruption in his life than when the door had opened and a nurse came in to check Buffy's vitals then take her to another floor for some testing. He knew Buffy meant no harm with her line of questioning about their previous relationship... including asking about how it all came crashing down. He knew this had to be tough on her with not remembering any of it and being stuck with no knowledge of the past several years of her own life. And he knew if he was in her position he'd be curious and wanting to know all the same. But he wasn't it easy his own self either. And right now he felt near a panic at the flood of emotions that gripped on tight to him from the conversation the two of them were having, not to mention everything else that had been going on in the past couple of weeks.

Add the fact of living it all on top of that, too.

He'd happily stood after the nurse announced her plans to take Buffy away and wished her luck before excusing himself from the room, saying he would be back to check on her later. He walked to the closest door that would lead him outside and hungrily ate up the fresh air that hit him. He pinched the bridge of his nose when he started feeling queasy and walked toward a bench across the way upon spotting it.

He was thankful the older man who'd been standing there smoking had taken off before he reached the bench, sat down and rested his large hands on his knees.

This had been one hell of a day.

And he knew it was't going to get any easier any time soon. Not while things were like this.

Angel wasn't sure how long he'd sat there but he ached quite a bit when he went to stand, his hand reaching into his pocket to check the time. He decided he's make a few phone calls before going to see about getting something to eat and maybe after that he'd brave coming back to the hospital to finish his and Buffy's conversation about the downfall of their marriage.

OoOoO

By the time Angel returned to the hospital visiting hours had come and gone. He knew this but went inside anyway.

It wasn't long before he was picking up the phone to get in touch with the nurse's station in the area Buffy was. And after a brief talk with the woman on the other end, the door was unlocked for him. Angel made his way down the hallway and then stopped at the desk, a smile on his face. "Thank you," he said sincerely to the older woman he came face-to-face with.

"Mister O'Connor," Olivia started.

"I know, I know," he cut in, holding his hands out after setting the white carry-out boxes he'd brought with him down. "My wife just woke up and I already missed most of the day with her," he said, his voice going straight to the older woman's heart by the look her eyes took on. "I know you can't let me back there to see her, but please just bring her some real food for me. I brought a second one of cakes and donuts and other sweets just for you lovely ladies and gentlemen," he said with a widening smile and a twinkle to his brown eyes.

The woman sighed, reached down and picked up the phone in front of her. She gave him one hell of a look which he smirked at then took a few steps off to the side until she called him back over. "The doctor gave an okay about bringing her the food," she said first, making him give her another smile. "And he said given the circumstances of her situation, he will even allow you to come in tonight. But only for an hour or two Mister O'Connor-or until Buffy gets tired." At this, Angel had to force the smile as he hadn't been expecting them to let him go see her and was hoping he could put off the rest of their conversation until tomorrow. After all, that was the main reason as to why he was late getting back this way. "You'll have to go back out to security and get a tag but then you come back this way, alright?"

Angel thanked her after a second or two had passed. He let Olivia and Lily go ahead and bring Buffy the meal he'd brought in for her while he went to go get his special visitor's pass.

It was only a handful of minutes before he was walking back through those doors, past the nursing station and on his way to Buffy's room.

Her eyes looked up when he entered the room, a hint of a smile gracing her lips. "H-hello again," she said.

He nodded as his way of greeting. "I hope you enjoy the food. I figured you might get hungry and we all know hospital food isn't at the top of anyone's most favorite list."

Buffy nodded her head this time, twirling her fork around to grab her next bite of spaghetti. "Yes, very much so. Thank you."

"There's actually a secondary food area here at the hospital too that's actually not so bad though," he told her. "They have a few restaurant pods set up, a grocery section and deli... along with a few other things."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Might have to get my meals from there when possible while I'm still here," she said, then got a new look in her eyes. "Do you know why I'm here?" she asked. "I mean-not the hospital of course but what I'm doing in Texas?"

"No, not really. According to some of your belongings that were with you, you have an address here now. It's quite a few hours from here and from where you had your wreck however."

"Oh. Okay. I was just wondering."

Angel nodded then crossed the room, returning to the blue chair he'd been resting in the last time he was in this room. "Like I said, you and I haven't spoken in several months so I really haven't known what you've been up to. Before that I will admit I was keeping an eye on you from time to time even after we had split but that wasn't healthy for either one of us it seemed. You'd still been in California the last I knew," he told her. "I did get in touch with your property manager and explained what was going on with you a few days after the accident. She helped out a little with saying where you were working and getting me in touch with someone there but that's about it. I paid off what bills I knew of but I don't know what else might be out there."

"Y-you didn't have to do that."

"I know," he said simply.

"Thank you though."

Angel shrugged, unbuttoning his jacket before resting back against the chair more. "I called Willow and she said she would call Xander, Giles and some of the others. I think she's going to try to fly out tomorrow but if not it'd be the day after at the latest I'm sure."

Buffy smiled. "Yeah, she called here earlier too. We didn't get to talk long but it was nice to hear her voice, to hear a familiar voice, you know?"

"I'm sure that's a comfort given your circumstances."

There was a few minutes passed where both of them remained silent. Angel looked up at the clock while she ate the dish he'd brought her. But finally she prodded into finishing their talk from before.

He couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh. "Things were perfect with us, for a couple of years they were," he started, making sure he kept emotions back out of his voice. "We argued, though not very often. We had differences in opinion, we had our ups and downs as any couple does. But things were good with us. Then it just started going to hell on us. There's not really one issue that caused it, no one instances, or anything like that. We both had our share of blame in it, though I bear more of that weight than you to be honest."

"What happened?" she asked again, softly.

"I got another promotion at the office, I became Senior Manager of my department. There'd been some inside issues with the company and there were a few months that filled like we were in a bubble of tension out there. The hours got longer, the work load taller. It started putting a strain on our marriage. You were recently out of college and looking to start your own career and it was a bad mixture at the time. Our hours never seemed to get on the same page and it felt like we hardly saw each other. Then when we did it was a toss-up to how it would go over. But that was just the tip of the iceberg," he said, casting his eyes down. "An old... friend, acquaintance... something... showed up which was a bigger issue that came between us. Any interaction with her was all about a business deal as far as I was concerned but Darla was causing issues with her own agenda. I did not know this at first but later it became painfully obvious." Angel reached a hand up and rubbed at his tired eyes. He hadn't had a good nights sleep in a coon's age. "You suspected something was off with her long before I saw it coming and didn't care much for me brushing it off. And by the time I got the full extent of everything, it was too late. Darla had gotten you to believe a mountain of lies and there was no part of you that wanted to believe a word I had to say for myself. It didn't seem to matter what I did or what I said, hell any proof that nothing was going on that I could give to you seemed to do any good. You had your mind made up. I can't entirely blame you as the encore performance to it all was a damn good trap and the scene you walked in on that night would have made anyone see red that last time, but it was all some twisted game. After that, it was just a matter of a couple of weeks before it was more or less finished between the two of us. A lot of angry words got said, on both our parts. A lot of tears got shed, a lot of yelling and screaming happened, a lot of begging and refusing. When you told me to leave I did. I was tired of fighting with you. I was tired of being accused of things that I had not done. So I just grabbed enough of my things to fit in a gym bag and walked out the door."

Silently he added how that action was one of the worst mistakes he'd ever made in his life. That while leaving that night wasn't that bad of idea, giving one another some space wasn't a bad idea, him using that night as the turning point to simply give up instead of fighting for her was.

Angel could remember all the times Buffy had brought up the fact that she suspected Darla was up to something and how he would just pass it off, then later when she started to question him about the extent of the relationship with the other blonde he even felt a little amused by the jealous, but soon shit the fan and it wasn't something to just push off to the side anymore. Buffy may not be able to see all of that in her mind's eye right now but he sure could. He could remember a few times the two had crossed paths and Buffy would get angrier with every encounter, making claims of one thing or another and how he would go gripe at Darla afterward and do his best to make it up to his wife for whatever had transpired. Angel could remember being off on a business trip and how it wound up costing him everything when Darla sprung her trap, dragging him and Buffy through the mud in the process.

He still wasn't even quite sure what exactly happened, how it happened, but it had. Somehow Darla had gotten into his room somehow while he'd been in the shower awaiting Buffy's arrival as he'd asked her to join him when the weekend came and she would be off work. The next thing he knew there was a commotion going on his room and there Buffy was, and Darla too. Darla who was not just in his room but with wet hair, wrapped up in a white robe, eating from the platter he'd had room service deliver not too long before.

Shed made some remark, Buffy had yelled at the two of them, and he'd just been dumbfounded at first. Eventually he'd had the sense to go chase after his wife but the damage seemed to be done.

"You stayed in Sunnydale," Angel said, bringing himself back to the present. "I decided to go stay in LA for awhile. We pretty much left each other alone for awhile, then you went ahead and filed for legal separation. I didn't fight you on it, just let it be. I had hoped maybe time apart would maybe help I guess, or would calm things down. But it wasn't long before I caught wind that you had resumed a relationship with one of your ex flames, Riley Finn, who you'd dated briefly when you'd first started college. You made your reasons for doing so-and with him-very clear, using it to hurt me for what you assumed I'd done. The two of us blew up at one another once more, this time far worse than any other before. We both lost our tempers in grand fashion that night, both saying things that we didn't mean-at least I know on my part I didn't and I was just wanting to hurt you, I like to believe it was the same for you... and when Monday rolled around I went and filed for divorce. It was pretty straight-forward. At first we made a scene or two during the proceedings since we were utterly down one another's throats any time we crossed paths, but eventually I grew sick and tired of it and just gave up. I wanted it all done with so I agreed to just about anything you wanted, did my best to keep a cooler head, and ignored the rage fuming from your end. This, of course, only made you angrier in the end but I didn't feel like giving back in to my own turmoil so I just let it all be. Before long our divorce was granted and we were no longer husband and wife. We did our best to continue steering clear of one another after that point as anytime we were in close proximity it always ended the same. You'd get mad, I'd just stand there taking it as still as a stone, this would get you more upset, and by the end of it I was getting slapped in the face or having something heavy thrown at me. So we just went on with our own lives."

OoOoO

Before he left for the night, Buffy had asked several more questions to her ex-husband, getting some details about the events that had happened to make their relationship fall apart and despite not remembering it, she felt a sadness grip onto her from the whole situation. From the way he had described everything it sounded like the two of them had very much been in love and that she'd been happy, and for it to all end over nothing more than a few stupid mistakes made her head and heart hurt.

She knew she'd always felt with her whole heart, and had always been pretty hard-headed so she could see where she might lose her temper like that, but kind of hoped she'd maybe outgrown that in her older years that she couldn't remember.

Other than asking questions about everything, she really didn't know what to say to Angelus-or Angel as he told her she could call him. It was awkward, to say the least.

He was so unreadable that it was a little irritating while she tried putting the pieces of her past together. He'd told her the outline and a few details of their lives together, including how it all ended, yet he'd come all the way out here when he heard she'd been in the accident. And not only that, he'd stayed the entire time, coming to see her every day, checking in on her, keeping up the guise that they were still married to anyone who didn't know better so he would know how she was. He'd gone out of his way to find out where she was living nowadays and pay off her bills, had contacted those closest to her for her, brought her food tonight. He was nice enough to her but he was very standoffish. He could turn the charm on so easily though when someone else would come into the room, always very polite, an easy smile gracing his handsome face. He rarely showed any emotion at all when it was just the two of them, his face utterly void of anything except for those haunting dark eyes of his. He did a good job of masking everything there but at times they'd give everything away. Which was probably why he avoided looking directly at her she deducted. His voice had grown softer a time or two and would have more life to it when he spoke with a nurse or doctor or other orderly but when it was just them he kept his voice nearly what she would describe as business-like. It was strong and smooth, a little clipped. He'd been careful not to touch her, though she wasn't sure if that was just her overreacting, but that is the way it seemed. Careful not to touch her, careful to keep distance between the two of them.

She'd noticed there was a ring on his finger and before he had taken off for the night she'd asked him if he had remarried. He'd told her no. When he'd stood to leave she also noticed that it looked to match the one she had, that she'd obviously had on her when the accident happened.


End file.
